The web's 20 most-visible individuals in Vancouver

CREDIT: Vancouver Sun files Darren Barefoot

VANCOUVER --The first-ever index identifying the web's 20 most-visible individuals in Vancouver was released Friday by NowPublic, in partnership with the Vancouver Sun.

The MostPublic Index measures whose voices are most heard in the digital landscape as new channels - including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube - transform how media is created and spread.

"These are folks who are engaged. They are involved in the world around them," said Leonard Brody, CEO of NowPublic, a Vancouver-based site where people can post and discuss news stories.

Topping the list in Vancouver is 34-year-old writer and marketer Darren Barefoot. His blog at www.darrenbarefoot.com - in combination with his presence on Flickr and Twitter - draws about 10,000 readers daily.

Barefoot's online opinions vary from the professional to the personal on topics ranging from the environment and poverty to politics and pop culture.

"That's the stuff I care about," Barefoot said in an interview.

Barefoot regularly blogs between two or three times daily, and invites a regular dialogue with his readers. He credits much of his popularity - or "cewebrity" to the tech-savvy - to his early presence as a blogger.

"Early adaptors of anything are often influential," he said.

But his background in writing and work on the web have also done much to boost his reputation in the blogosphere. Writing, he said, "is a very natural format for me."

Others on the list include musician Matthew Good, whose blog at www.matthewgood.org ranks 11th on the MostPublic Index, and journalist David Beers at number 19.

The Vancouver index is the latest effort by NowPublic to identify the MostPublic influencers in specific urban centres. Previously, NowPublic published similar lists in New York, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.

NowPublic's measurement formula gauges an individual's online visibility, presence on user-generated content and social networking sites, audience interactivity and accessibility, and the presence on microblogging platforms such as Flickr or Twitter.

"This is not conclusive or finite," Brody said. "You can't capture everyone."

But, he added, the index does offer the first real look at some of the cities most-influential broadcasters. "This is the first attempt to take a group of people and say, 'Let's crunch the data and see when somebody says something, how many people do they reach with that message.' "I think the list will surprise some people," he said.

dahansen@vancouversun.com

The top 20:

1       Darren Barefoot         http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/

2       Tim Bray        http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/

3       Boris Mann        http://blog.bootuplabs.com/

4       Kris Krug       http://kriskrug.com/

5       Roland Tanglao  http://rolandtanglao.com/

6       Tom Williams    http://www.givemeaning.com/blog/index.html

7       Megan Cole      http://www.megancole.org/

8       Rebecca Bolwitt         http://www.miss604.com/

9       Arianna Schweber       http://www.blogaholics.ca/

10      Tod Maffin      http://todmaffin.com/

11      Dick Hardt      http://blame.ca/

12      Tris Hussey     http://www.trishussey.com/

13      Alfred Hermida     http://reportr.net/

14      Matthew Good    http://www.matthewgood.org/

15      Ian Andrew Bell http://www.ianbell.com

16      Travis Smith    http://www.hopstudios.com/nep/unvarnished/

17      Danny Robinson   http://blog.bootuplabs.com/

18      Paul Sullivan   http://www.orato.com/node/6004

19      David Beers     http://thetyee.ca/

20      David Eby       http://davideby.blogspot.com/ 

You can also visit these websites by clicking on the related links to the right of the story.